If by chance you want to catch a little of the Art Basel spirit in Brooklyn, then be sure to stop by the opening reception of Abstract Tapestry at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center this Saturday night from 6-8pm. Three of the ten featured artists are also exhibiting at Art Basel in Miami, enduring the 20-hour drive down to Florida, then hopping on a plane back for the WAHC exhibition on Saturday – all in the name of art.
Curator, Eniko Imre, has created an intriguing web of abstract painters by beginning with three artists and inviting them to select others that influence their own work, culminating in an exhibition that showcases both the presence of cornerstone techniques in abstract art and the manipulation, and evolution of the medium into its present-day form. Abstract Tapestry reveals the modern-day styles of abstract painting and highlights ten of its contemporaries.
This exhibition is yet another example of contemporary artists’ reinvestigation of abstraction rather than relegating it to the annals of art history and modern design (earlier this year we also saw similar themes at Parallel Art Space All Over or Nothing). While the rise of abstraction in the 20th century marked one of the greatest shifts in art in terms of aesthetics and its meaning, and allowed for more in-depth theoretical and existential inquiry, today many forms of abstraction have been co-opted by design and commercial use, voiding it of its supposed avant-garde stature.
The artists in Abstract Tapestry continue the fight for abstraction’s soul and relevance through the use of unexpected materials, like Ana de la Cueva’s use of embroidery and Kati Vilim‘s vivid exploration of color and space. Can these artists save abstraction? Find out for yourself this Saturday!
“Abstract Tapestry” opens at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Society this Saturday 6-8PM and will run through December 29th.
Williamsburg Art and Historical Society Gallery Hours:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday 12–6 pm
